Unveiling the half-yearly monetary policy statement (MPS) on Thursday, Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Atiur Rahman made it clear that his policy direction for the first half (H1) of the current financial year would pursue cautious stance in credit expansion to keep inflation at a comfortable level. In the MPS for the first half of the new 2015-16 financial year (FY16), the central bank projected 15.0 percent credit growth to private sector while the overall domestic credit growth would be 16.3 percent. The projections are higher than the preceding year’s actual domestic credit growth of 10.4 percent and private sector […]

Finance Minster AMA Muhith has given consent on Tk500 crore fund supply to Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC) to expand easy home loan facility in rural areas. He singed a summary on Thursday on the financial support from the government’s budget allocation of this fiscal year to the state-run body, said finance division sources. A HBFC official said the potential borrowers had already started lobbying and using political influence to get the loan given on easy terms. But it sparked a fear that the target people who are comparatively much needy might miss the credit facility if such use […]

High nonperforming loans (NPLs) eroded banks’ earnings last year, the central bank said in a report yesterday. Subsequently in 2014, return on asset and return on equity, the two major indicators to measure a bank’s profitability, decreased by 20 and 260 basis points to 0.7 and 8.1 percent respectively from a year ago. The rise in NPLs last year forced banks to set aside a major portion of their profits for provisioning, said SK Sur Chowdhury, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, at the unveiling of the Financial Stability Report 2014. Chowdhury blamed the high NPL of state banks for the […]

To bolster bilateral energy ties, Bangladesh has suggested setting up of a thermal power plant through a joint venture in India, reports The Economic Times. In this regard, Bangladesh has proposed that a coal block could be allocated to the joint venture entity while power generated from the plant could be supplied to Bangladesh. The proposed plant would be on the lines of 1,320 MW thermal project in Rampal- being jointly developed by NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB)-in the neighbouring nation. “We have proposed that if we are given a coal block (by the Indian government) in India, […]

The price of oil has fallen further after the International Energy Agency forecast weaker demand in 2015. The IEA, a consultancy to 29 countries, said supply and demand would take “some time” to respond to sharp falls in oil prices. It said it was too early to expect low oil prices to start constricting a US supply boom. On Friday, Brent crude fell to below $63 a barrel, its lowest price since July 2009. The price of Brent fell by $1.83 to $61.85 a barrel, hitting lows last seen in July 2009. Meanwhile, US crude was down $2.14 to $57.81 […]

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has said new gas connections will not be given to domestic users any more. “You will not receive the supply of gas at every household. Gas will not be supplied for domestic uses any more. Gas is a very precious resource. Steps have been taken to limit the use of this precious resource for domestic uses,” he said while speaking as the chief guest at an opinion-sharing meeting with public representatives and government officials at Bahubal upazila conference room in Habiganj on Friday morning. Muhith said also said no new gas connections have been […]

The World Bank forecasts that Bangladesh will post a 6.2 percent GDP growth in the current fiscal. The WB makes the forecast in a report, ‘Bangladesh Development Update, October, 2014′ published on Tuesday. In the report, the WB also suggested Bangladesh to prioritise four immediate agenda, including compliance reforms in readymade garment (RMG) sector and speedy completion of key development projects, for accelerating the GDP growth. Speaking at a press conference on the report at its Dhaka office, WB lead economist in Bangladesh Zahid Hussain said Bangladesh can boost its GDP growth up to 8 per cent within the next […]

Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman recommended reshaping financial system to support sustainable development, especially in the countries where most of the people urgently require strong intuitional financial support, reports BSS. The governor put forward the recommendation while presetting a paper on “Design of a Sustainable Financial System” at the second advisory council meeting of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in New York, USA on Friday. Atiur, who is also a member of the council, highlighted BB’s engagement in reshaping financial system to support sustainable development in a learning session where experiences of Brazil, China, South Africa and the United […]

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has extended the deadline for submission of income tax returns for the current fiscal year by individual taxpayers by a month till November 2, 2014. The NBR in a press release on Monday said that various professional and business bodies had requested the Board to extend the deadline as taxpayers are finding it hard to collect necessary papers and completing formalities for submitting the returns following the closure of various offices and institutions due to the ensuing holy hajj, Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja. “Under the circumstances, the deadline for the submission of income tax […]

A joint venture of Boeing Co (BA.N) and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) plans to announce on Wednesday that it will team up with Blue Origin, a company run by Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos, to develop a new rocket engine, a source familiar with the plans said. Officials at Boeing and Lockheed declined comment. No comment was immediately available from Blue Origin or United Launch Alliance (ULA), the Boeing-Lockheed venture that uses Russian-built engines to power some of its rockets. ULA had sent out a request for information asking the U.S. aerospace industry earlier this year for ideas on how to replace the Russian-built RD-180 that powers […]